Table 1 NeOn Ontology Design Pattern types

Structural ODPs

Logical ODPs

A Logical OP is a formal expression, whose only parts are expressions from a logical vocabulary, e.g. OWL DL, that solves a problem of expressivity [8].

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Architectural ODPs

Logical ODPs or compositions of them that are used exclusively in the design of an ontology. An Architectural ODPs is also a content-independent structure. In other words, an Architectural ODPs is supposed to characterize the overall structure of an ontology. In simple terms, an Architectural ODP dictates "how an ontology should look like" [12].

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Correspondence ODPs

Re-engineering ODPs

Reengineering ODPs are transformation rules applied in order to create a new ontology (target model) starting from elements of a source model [8].

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Alignment ODPs

Alignment ODPs refer to correspondences between ontologies. Each pattern models a relation between two entities or sets of entities in two ontologies. Instantiation of an Alignment ODP results in a correspondence between elements of two given ontologies [8].

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Presentation ODPs

Naming ODPs

Naming ODPs are conventions on how to create names for namespaces, files, and ontology elements in general (classes, properties, etc.) [8].

Containing no ODPs

Annotation ODPs

Annotation ODPs provide annotation properties or annotation property schemas that are meant to improve the understandability of ontologies and their elements [8].

Containing no ODPs

Content ODPs (CPs)

Content ODPs are distinguished networked ontologies and have their own namespace. They cover a specific set of competency questions (requirements), which represent the problem they provide a solution for. Furthermore, Content ODPs show certain characteristics, i.e. they are: computational, small, autonomous, hierarchical, cognitively relevant, linguistically relevant, and best practices [8].

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Reasoning ODPs

Reasoning ODPs applications of Logical OPs oriented to obtain certain reasoning results, based on the behavior implemented in a reasoning engine [8][9]. Examples for Reasoning ODPs are classification, subsumption, inheritance, etc [8].

Containing no ODPs

Lexico-Syntactic ODPs

Lexico-Syntactic ODPs are linguistic structures or schemas that consist of certain types of words following a specific order, and that permit to generalize and extract some conclusions about the meaning they express. They are useful for associating simple Logical and Content ODPs with natural language sentences, e.g. for didactic purposes [10].

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